PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Do more people speed in Port St. Lucie than anywhere else in the country? A new report from Allstate America said they do.
But how accurate is that report?
WPTV reporter Kate Hussey went digging through data to find out.
Every year, Allstate America releases its Best Driving report, ranking the country's drivers from 1 to 100 on how safe they drive.
The study looked at how hard drivers brake, how fast they speed and how often they use their phones while driving.
In the category of speed, Port St. Lucie hit the very bottom: ranking 100 out of 100 for speediest drivers.
"Really? Wow," Port St. Lucie resident Richard Blumsack said.
"What do you think about that?" Hussey asked.
"That's pretty terrible," Blumsack said.
Resident Dorothy Duve wasn't surprised at all.
"Absolutely, the speeders, everybody seems to want to get somewhere real fast," Duve said. "No one wants to follow the speed limit."
WPTV took a look at Allstate's methodology and found they collected high-speed data through their mobile app on a customer's phone when it's in use while driving.
The app calculated high-speed driving when a customer drives over 80 mph.
Data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows about 10.5% of Florida drivers have Allstate insurance.
Assuming Port St Lucie's market share is similar, and assuming every Allstate customer in the area uses the mobile app while driving, the data still doesn't account for 90% of the city's drivers.
It's also important to note that the study counted parts of Fort Pierce and Martin County as Port St. Lucie. In addition, the data is based on the location of a trip and not the zip code of a customer or their vehicle.
Still, Port St. Lucie police know speeding is an issue.
Last year, officers asked residents to rank the issues they feel are most important for officers to crack down on.
The survey found that 92% of residents polled said traffic enforcement was their No. 1 concern, ranking above drugs, gangs, criminal investigations, the K-9 unit and homeland security.
The city's traffic unit was residents' third highest concern two years ago.
Data that WPTV also compiled showed that citywide traffic complaints continue rising year after year, and reached an all-time high of 663 complaints in 2023.
"[The city has] 250,000 residents," Port St. Lucie Police Chief Richard Del Toro said. "Not long ago we were a bedroom community where the quality of life was a little slower here, the demographics changed. It's much younger now."
Del Toro said he's aware of concerns and focused on addressing them.
In 2023, officers issued more than 45,000 written warnings and citations — about 11,000 of those were specifically for speeding.
Currently, the agency has a traffic unit of 12 officers that are split between the east and west sides of the city.
"Is that something you're looking to increase in the future?" Hussey asked Del Toro.
"We're looking to grow every section within the police department, but based on the fact traffic enforcement is so very important to our citizens, I'm sure that’s going to get a priority," replied Del Toro.
On the plus side, data shows the number of traffic fatalities in Port St. Lucie is below both the state and national average.
Click here to read Allstate's full driving study.
